Maclean’s has a profile of the TVO series Political Blind Date, which pits politicians from rival parties – sometimes from the same level of government, sometimes from different provinces – in situations that help them understand each other’s viewpoints and helps to break down the partisanship barriers. And this is great – but what it was missing was any particular context as to why partisanship has grown to such toxic levels in the first place, and that has a lot to do with parliaments and legislatures rejigging their rules to be more “family friendly.”

Until the early 1990s, parliament used to hold evening sittings three nights a week. At six o’clock, the House would adjourn, and everyone would head upstairs to the Parliamentary Restaurant (aided by the fact that there was a dearth of restaurant options in the area, and liquor laws were such that you bought a bottle of booze that was kept behind the bar in the restaurant with your name on it). MPs would eat together, drink together, get to know one another across party lines, and it developed a sense of congeniality, and at eight o’clock, they’d head back to the Chamber and debate for a couple of more hours. The arrival of the Reform Party and the move to end evening sittings to be “family friendly” ended the congeniality and cross-party opportunities to just be parliamentarians together. With no impetus to break bread together, caucuses grew insular, and it became easier to treat other parties as the enemy rather than just having opposing points of view. Now, it’s rare that cross-party friendships occur unless there is committee travel that helps MPs bond, but that’s not very often. It’s disappointing that we are now relying on a TV show to build these relationships which used to be part and parcel of being an MP.

What’s particularly sad is that this kind of thing is now infecting the Senate, which used to be a far less partisan place than the House of Commons, and for which many senators have formed close and long-lasting friendships across the aisle. They still have more of the convivial culture that the Commons did, but that too is fading as the new Independents, eager to burn things down and declare anyone with partisan affiliation to be tainted and in some cases the enemy (particularly the Conservatives), it is polarizing the Chamber, and souring the mood therein. For a move that was supposed to lessen partisanship, Trudeau’s brilliant attempt to reform the Senate is doing the opposite – just one more unintended consequence that nobody bothered to consider, and all Canadians suffer as a result.

Good reads:

• The Supreme Court of Canada ruled from the bench, striking down BC’s attempt to regulate the contents of pipelines that cross their borders.
• François-Philippe Champagne is in London, hosting meetings with the other countries affected by the downing of PS752 near Tehran.
• Some Canadian forces in Iraq are resuming operations after the Iranian bombings.
• A Canadian Forces reservist found to have ties to white supremacists groups was arrested by the FBI in the US after he fled Canada months ago.
• Public service surveys find that Rideau Hall remains one of the worst places in government for harassment (which is one more sign of how bad things are there).
• Senator Mike Duffy was at the Ontario Court of Appeal, trying to overturn the ruling striking down his lawsuit against the Senate, saying privilege shouldn’t count here.
• The National Post profiles newbie MPs Lenore Zann from the Liberals, Raquel Dancho of the Conservatives, Leah Gazan from the NDP, and Green Jenica Atwin.
• Erin O’Toole is looking to position himself as the “unifying” candidate in the Conservative leadership, and he’s attracted the man behind the “Proud” websites.
• Lisa Raitt thinks that John Baird’s report on the election failures need to be made available to caucus. Michelle Rempel publicly agreed.
• The release of documents from a corruption probe of one of Jean Charest’s former fundraisers could become another obstacle to Charest’s leadership ambitions.
• Preston Manning is retiring from the Manning Centre he founded, and they announced they will be looking for a new name.
• Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column looks at how fundraising disclosure obligations will affect the Conservative leadership race.
• Susan Delacourt makes note of the Conservative leadership dynamics on display at John Crosbie’s funeral, and the reverberations of the late 1980s still present therein.

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